In 2023, the number of people travelling abroad for tourism had fully recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, with restrictions lifted for all destinations. The 3 EU regions at level 2 of the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 2) with the highest number of nights spent by foreign tourists were the Spanish island regions of […]
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) publishes its Annual Report on the EU budget 2023
The Commission welcomes the European Court of Auditor (ECA)’s extensive work on its Annual Report on the 2023 EU budget and takes note of the ECA’s valuable insights as regards the regularity of the EU budget implementation. Main achievements of the EU budget in 2023 In 2023, the EU budget continued delivering on our priorities. […]
Half a million EU jobs protected by EU trade defence in 2023
Trade defence tools play an essential role in protecting EU jobs by promoting fairness and a level playing field, according to the 2023 Report on EU Trade Defence Activities, adopted yesterday. A total of 182 trade defence measures were in place in the EU at the end of 2023, including 156 anti-dumping measures, 25 anti-subsidy measures, and […]
More than 3.7 million first residence permits in 2023
More than 3.7 million first residence permits were issued in the EU to non-EU citizens in 2023, a 4.7% increase compared with 2022, and the highest number recorded to date. Employment remained the main reason for issuing residence permits in 2023, accounting for 33.8% (1.3 million) of all first residence permits issued, indicating a modest decrease compared with 2022 […]
Eurostat: House sales drop in 2023
In 2023, the number of housing transactions decreased in 13 out of the 16 EU countries for which data are available, compared with 2022. This marks the second consecutive year that the majority of reporting countries have registered drops in sales. The largest decreases in the number of transactions in 2023 were recorded in Luxembourg […]
Eurostat: Drop in youths neither working nor studying
In 2023, more than one in ten (11.2%) young people aged 15 to 29 in the EU were neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET), a decrease of 0.5 percentage points (pp) compared with 2022. Over the last ten years, there was a noticeable decrease in the NEET rate among people aged 15 to 29. In 2013, the […]
People at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the European Union in 2023
In 2023, 94.6 million people in the EU (21% of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, i.e. lived in households experiencing at least one of the three poverty and social exclusion risks: risk of poverty, severe material and social deprivation, and/or living in a household with very low work intensity. The figure slightly decreased compared with 2022 […]
8% of EU enterprises used AI technologies in 2023
In 2023, 8% of enterprises in the EU with 10 or more employees used Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to conduct their business. This data comes from the newly updated Statistics Explained article on the use of artificial intelligence in enterprises. Artificial intelligence refers to systems that use technologies such as text mining, computer vision, speech […]
Eurostat: by 2023, 68% of girls in the European Union will have at least basic digital skills
In 2023, 68% of girls aged 16-19 in the EU possessed basic or above-basic digital skills, noticeably exceeding the share in the general population (56%). The proportion of boys in the same age bracket with at least basic digital skills was slightly lower (65%). Across age groups, only women or men aged 20-24 and 25-34 demonstrated […]